Question / Help Terrible recording quality on new 16" MBP/Close to Maxxed specs

[spetsll]

Hi,

I've been trying to record some WoW Classic footage on my 16" Mac with the following specs, and have had consistently terrible recording quality despite lagless gameplay:

2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB
Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

When playing the game, even with OBS recording I my FPS is consistently at or very close to 60.

I do not have this problem when recording the screen with Quicktime, however I can't capture audio on there so here I am.

I'd appreciate any help, thanks!

 

[Narcogen]

OBS and QuickTime work in fundamentally different ways. QT is basically just capturing the screen buffer and doing nothing else.

OBS is a compositor and switcher, and this incurs additional load, that if you're not using those features, you may be better off without.

If you post a logfile from a session I can indicate how you might improve performance, but it is worth noting that:

1. OBS performs less well on MacOS than on Windows on the same hardware, and is missing features
2. Laptops perform less well than desktops
3. Mac laptops in particular are generally less powerful at the same price point than Mac laptops, at least with regard to the capabilities relevant to recording and streaming

Include a log file if you have a problem: here's how

To upload a log file, go to the Help menu -> Log Files -> Upload current/last log file. The current log file is for the currently active running session. The last log file is for the last time you ran the program. We recommend always including it just in case.

obsproject.com

Open OBS. Start an output session (streaming or recording). Observe your issue. Stop the output session. Upload the Current log without quitting OBS.

 

[spetsll]

Thanks for the fast reply. I've attached the log file.

 

[Narcogen]

My two suggestions would be:

Drop your canvas resolution down to match your output resolution (1080p). Mac laptops generally ship with high resolution displays and their GPUs are not up to the task of driving that display, running an application like WoW, and then also rendering those frames again in OBS all at that high resolution.

The next suggestion would be to reconsider 60fps and think about 30, or else drop to 720p60.